Weathering With You, movie review

Rating: C+

Hodaka is a boy on the run, escaping life on a small island for the large city of Tokyo, and since he's a minor there's only so many places he can hide without attracting notice from the police.  It also doesn't help that he finds a gun right outside a club.  Meanwhile Hina is a girl with her own set of troubles, and it is while her Mom is in the hospital that she runs outside, following a ray of light, and stops the rain.  It's been raining in Tokyo.  Nonstop.  All everyone wants is a little sunshine.  Hina discovers she's the sunshine girl, able to bring light to a drenched world.

Weathering With You is the latest movie by writer and director Makoto Shinkai.  He became well known a few years ago with Your Name, though other beautiful works of his precede this anime.  Shinkai has a unique style.  He's able to captor nature elements in such an elegant way that no other animation holds a candle.  His ability to animate and stylize water alone is iconic and extraordinary.  It's one of his artistic signatures.

Shinkai's latest movie is a visual work of art.  Seeing different sides and landmarks of Tokyo was a joy, giving me heart-pangs for another visit.  Someday.  And it's so nice seeing two-dimensional hand drawn animation thriving, though Weathering With You has 3D animation here and there, but there's a life and emotion that can be better shown with drawing verses computers.  Just think of the two versions of Lion King.  Realism is nice, but there's so much more heart in a 2D character plane.  In Weathering With You nature becomes its own character.

Where Weathering With You lacks, and where Your Name was capital, is with the story itself.  The pacing is slow at times.  The plot loose.  It's good when movies breathe, but there was a little too much breath.  Though there are aspects of this movie I did like, and some of the messaging interesting, ultimately I found it rather sad.  There's a spot towards the end where I think it's supposed to be tragic, but members of the audience laughed, and I said with an undertone, "Are you kidding me?"  And then I felt removed, questioning characters, questioning mythos, and wondering what ever happened, long term, to the other maidens.

Weathering With You is a nice movie, and it is worth a watch for anime fans.  Would I recommend this for everyone?  Maybe.  All forms of animation needs to be supported, especially the dying art of hand-drawn.  But if I was to recommend Your Name or Weathering With You, I'd recommend Your Name.

Rated PG-13 for suggestive material, some violence and language.

Geeking Over Gundams

 Seeing the giant Gundam in Tokyo has been a bucket list item for such a long time.  I wanted to visit back in 2015, but couldn't work it out with all the other things my brother Michael, sister-in-law Krista, and I wanted to do.  With this latest trip my Mom, brother Steven, his boyfriend Ty, and I were already planning on visiting the teamLab Boarderless museum, so we were going to be a short walk to the Gundam.  I'm glad I live in a family of nerds, because they were all excited to check it out.

 Was seeing a full size Gundam statue worth the wait and hype? Yes!!

What a silly question. :P

It was fun. And I totally geeked out.  It's so big!  Apparently there's a store, which I would have loved to see, but we were planning on doing so much that there wasn't time.  But for every anime fan/nerd/geek/whatnot, seeing the giant Gundam in Diver City is totally worth it.

(Photos either by Sarah, Robin, Steven, or Ty.

They all got mixed up while working on a project)

Alita: Battle Angel, mini movie review

Rating: B-/C+

Have you ever been given a can of soda and opened it, soda spraying everywhere in surprise?  Someone, somewhere, thought it would be a real good idea to shake up that can and put it back on the shelf, and you're left with a sticky sugar mess.  Explosion!  All that built up tension released.  The mess is annoying, the soda spray satisfying.

Technically, I've given up soda, but while in the theater I held a figurative can of soda, and through micro climaxes I kept shaking this can.  Shaking.  Shaking.  And Shaking some more.

But I shouldn't get too ahead of myself.

Alita: Battle Angel is based on a 1990's Japanese manga in the cyberpunk genre.  The landscape is dystopian.  A floating city hovers above a junkyard landscape, scraps of technology scattered in mounds.  Dr. Dyson Ido, played by Christoph Waltz, repairs cyborg parts on humans, scouring the junkyard for spare items.  As he searchers he finds Alita, voiced and acted by Rosa Salazar, a cyborg girl missing her body and memories.  Ido repairs Alita, and as she becomes acquainted with the World she now lives, her scattered memories lead to a building conflict stretching centuries.

There's restlessness.  Drudgery.  A little romance.  Discovery.  A fractured world.  A suppressing enemy.  Killing cyborgs.  Exciting action scenes.  Motorball, a popular game with prestige.  Then there's Alita's tale of discovery and the wish to journey above.

Alita: Battle Angel is well cast.  The special effects revolutionary.  This movie is a visual splendor.

And Alita, being a manga inspired story, and very, very anime.  I've never read the manga, but from what I've seen online those who love the Alita stories love the movie.

As someone not familiar with the original source material, I found myself intrigued at times with the World presented in Alita, but also lost at other times as to what the true conflict is, getting some terms switched.  Maybe I just need another viewing to see if I might have zoned, causing confusion.  It's possible.  The way certain plot points steer is very anime, which is hard to explain.  There's a grittiness to some anime.  I'm not talking Pokemon.  I'm talking Full Metal Alchemist and the like.  A darkness that gets a little psychological.  That leaves you cold.  There's some of that in Alita: Battle Angel.  This movie is also very violent.  If the violence was turned to humans instead of cyborgs, this movie would have an easy R rating. (Writing that last bit for anyone with kids, who's wondering).

There are parts of Alita I like.  Love her character.  Rosa Salazar with the audition of animators did a fine job.  Her large eyes didn't bother me as she's based on an anime character and is supposed to be otherworldly.

I just didn't care for the ending.  There isn't one.  Not trying to spoil anything, but I'm not, really, as the ending is a cliff-hanger, end of volume style.  At the end of the movie I'm holding my figurative can of soda without the benefit of releasing the tab.  All this built up pressure.  I'm just worried we may not be getting a sequel, and this movie needs a sequel.

Alita: Battle Angel is not a family movie, but if you love anime, cyberpunk, or other similar genres, you may like this movie.

MPAA: PG-13.

Just a Girl Being a Nerd: Gundam Wing

 Have you seen something when you were younger that you really, really wanted, but couldn't get?  And, for whatever reason, wanting it never left your mind?  Heh, not sure what you're thinking, but for me this happens with silly, little things.  In the late 90's I was a huge Gundam Wing fan.  It's still my favorite anime, though it's been awhile since I've seen this Gundam show.

I didn't collect too many things from the series.  My brothers got the Gundam models.  I wanted Wing Zero, but never got around to buying one.  One day, around 2002 or 2003, I was wearing a Gundam Wing t-shirt I bought at a Dark Horse comic store on Universal CityWalk at Universal Studios Hollywood--that's a mouthful--while at Walmart.  This Japanese guy did a double take while I was shopping the produce area and kept staring at me.  Was he surprised an American was wearing a Gundam Wing shirt?  Or that a girl was?  I wore that shirt out.  It was a thing of beauty.

Sometime in the early 2000's I found a set of Gundam Wing character figures.  I wanted it so bad!  But didn't have the money and had to pass.  Now and then, later on, I checked Ebay, and for years I couldn't find it for sale.  Then a few years ago I noticed this set starting to pop up, but still I couldn't splurge.  Then, last week, I found it for $30 with free shipping.  I had to do it!  And now it's sitting on a shelf.

The box is damaged.  There's sun bleaching.  This set has probably seen a few things, or not while collecting dust in a box.  Still, I had to momentarily take the figures out to examine.  For now I'll display them in the box.

The nerdy girl in me is happy to have these Gundam Wing figures.

Thank You Pikachu For Making Me Feel Old

For starters I feel really quite young.

 When I was a kid and would look up to 30-somethings I would think, "Man that's old!"  For goodness sake it was a couple months before my 9th birthday when my Mom turned 30, which--Oh my goodness, I just realized this--I was 13 when my Mom was my age.  How's that for perspective?  Maybe being single at 34 with a boat load of questions about my life makes me feel young.  I don't know.  But then people are constantly mistaking me for 25, which I'll take as long as I can.

And then life throws a bucket of cold water on you to remind you that time is passing whether you like it or not.  For me I got soaked with ice water when I found a toy at Walmart showing the number 20.

"Why the freak is the number 20 on a Pokemon box!!??" I didn't exclaim this out loud.  Instead I screamed this within the confines of my mind.  A quick Google search later and I found out that the game Pokémon Red and Green came out on February 27, 1996, a year before the anime.

It wasn't until my senior year of High School, 1999, when I learned about the phenomenon through my obsessed three younger brothers.

We watched the show.  We collected cards.  They actually played, I just like collecting things.  I had many debates with my friends whether Pokemon is a legitimate anime, because a lot of purest wanted nothing to do with these Pocket Monsters.  Kiki's Delivery Service is the first anime I watched.  Miyazaki was gaining huge popularity in America.  Gundam Wing came out in March of 1996 as well, making strides on Toonami with 1992's Sailor Moon.

Yes, Sailor Moon is 24 years old. (Technically Sailor Moon was a middle schooler, so 12+24= 36.  Let that sink in.)

Most of the cards I've collected I've given to my siblings.

I've kept some of the holos.

This is my all time favorite card: Promo Holo Ancient Mew.

Scanning the card into a JPEG made it really dark.

Here's a picture that better shows the colors.

From ToyWiz.com: "Pokemon promo card ancient Mew - given issued out to attendees at the Pokemon Movie in 2000. Ancient Mew is Holographic on both sides and has an amazing illustration of the elusive Mew on the front of the card. The back of the card is wonderfully illustrated with energy balls consisting of grass, fighting, and fire, water, colorless, lightning and psychic."

Apparently it's an ultra rare.  Cool.  I got two on opening day.

Still Pikachu's 20.  20!!  Where is the time going?

My Motivation Board

I finished my motivation board last night.

I've been meaning to make a visualization board for a while now, haven't yet but will soon at some point, because I realized a motivational board is more important.

I got the idea when I was going through SELF magazine last night and cut out two quotes: "Confidence Makes You Sexy (Your Hair Doesn't Hurt Either)" and "I Regret That Workout - Said No One, Ever."

They were so cute!  And I relate to both.  I need a little more confidence.  I wish I could say I'm 100% sure of myself; That I have no doubts or insecurities; That I'm completely comfortable with my body.  I'm not. At all.  But it's a change I'm working on.

It's hard not being hard on myself for not being at a desired point "K" or "T" or "Z", somewhere further down the road then where I currently stand.  As hard as that is, life comes at us one day at a  time for a reason.  I'll get to my desired point eventually.  It's okay that it's not tomorrow.  Life is meant to be lived.  None of us is perfect.

So this is my focus: Finding confidence in the here and now.  Trying to not let past mistakes and missed opportunities get me down.

A couple other sayings I wrote on the board are things I've chanted to myself from time to time.

"Time waits for no one."  I got that from the anime "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time," which is excellent by the way.  Amazing animation, story, and music.  The complete package with a good message.

"No sweet tastes as good as a skinny body feels."  I heard this during Ward Prayer once.  It's true, but I'll forever love chocolate.  (EDIT.  I just realized the saying is: Nothing tastes as sweet as a skinny body feels."  Gotta correct my board.)

And "I accept myself completely - Right Now."  I got this from the Food Matters documentary "Hungry For Change."  It's a phrase I'm chanting to myself everyday now.  The brain can be reprogrammed.

One day at a time.

Time waits for no one.

Life is meant to be lived.

This is only the beginning :0)

K-Pop Invasion: Gangnam Style

(Source Info)

Last night, on the way home from a class, I about died: On 103.9 FM (The Mix 107.9), a Utah radio station that plays adult pop/alternative favorites, I suddenly heard an Asian pop song.  At first I thought the song was called Gundam Style (if you know anything about Japanese culture, you'll know a little thing about the amazing giant mechas called Gundam . . . Gundam Wing, till this day, is my most favorite anime.)  And then it became a game of "what language is that?"  I'm addicted to J-pop (Japanese pop music), so that was out.  But halfway through the song he says "Korean," so that was a sure giveaway.

The name of the song is called Gangnam Style sung by K-pop (Korean Pop) artist PSY.  I've never heard this song before last night!  But Korean, on an American radio station, was being sung!  You know what a big deal this is?  Huge!

The music video (which is at the bottom of this post) has gone viral, and as I post this there are close to 284,000,000 hits.  Amazing.

I've been a fan of J-Pop/K-pop songs for years.  It's a J-pop song from the Escaflowne movie that gave me the desire to learn Japanese.  And a few years ago I started getting into K-pop after watching some Korean Drama's (which are very good, BTW.)

If you like this song, and want to hear some more Korean music, I recommend BoA's (Beat of Angel) album "Copy & Paste."  You can download this album off of iTunes along with many of her J-pop hits.  That album has some really cool beats, and "Implode" is such a sweet song.

Enjoy some Gangnam sytle!!

Okay, I have the station on right now, 12:43 PM, and the song is playing AGAIN!!!!!  Two times in less then 24 hours!!!